Setting the Base Pay Level Based on the Market

Watch the video How to obtain pay data from Glassdoor (also provided with this instruction file in Canvas). You also need to have a clear understanding of the contents of this video.

Let’s assume that you plan to open a large family restaurant in Killeen, TX. You are in the process of hiring employees for your restaurant. In this process, you need to decide on the standard base pay level of various jobs within your restaurant. And one of the jobs that you need to set the standard base pay level for is the Restaurant Manager job. You are planning to hire three Restaurant Managers, considering the work hours for rotation and smooth operation. The base pay of each Restaurant Manager is likely to differ from one another, considering the experience and other factors. However, you do want to have a clear picture of the overall standard base pay level that you are willing to pay for this job. You believe the three major competitors in this market are TGI Fridays, Outback Steakhouse, and Red Lobster. You want to position your restaurant as a place that a family can enjoy at a lower price than these three restaurants. So, you plan to maintain the overall operating costs and labor costs as low as possible. As a result, you want to set the base pay level of the Restaurant Manager job lower than that of the Restaurant Managers at these three restaurants at the national level. However, you do want to pay at a higher level than the 25 percentile wage level of Restaurant Managers in the Killeen area.

So, you first have decided to research the pay level of your competitors (at the national level). Using the data from Glassdoor (www.glasdoor.comLinks to an external site.), fill in the below table (Table 1).

Table 1. Average Annual Base Pay of Restaurant Managers in the Three Restaurants

Job

TGI Fridays

Outback Steakhouse

Red Lobster

Average

Range1)

Average

Range1)

Average

Range1)

Restaurant Manager

1) For the “Range,” please use the “Most Likely Range” (or the “25% to 75% Range”) you see on the Glassdoor webpage.

  • To see the pay level estimate on the Glassdoor website (www.glasdoor.comLinks to an external site.), follow the below steps.

To do this, you’ll need to sign up for the Glassdoor account. (Students get 12 months of free access to all the contents on the website.)

Step 1: Go to the web page (www.glasdoor.comLinks to an external site.).